Of Interest

Full letter is below the fold, but here’s the gist on what may be a unique system in higher education:

All students will be able to pay for books @ Water Street using their Williams ID, which will charge to their term bill.

All students on financial aid will not be charged, for books or for course packets, I.E. no out-of-pocket expenses for books if you are on Financial Aid and buying from Water Street.

This change is cost-neutral.

The committee has been working on this for a while now, and if the reaction of one parent (who somehow sent an e-mail to the entire student body) is indicative, it will be well received. No one on aid will choose a course based on book costs, no one will have to wait in a somewhat stigmatizing line during First Days, and Water Street Books will get a lot more business, since this doesn’t apply to Amazon.

Dear Students,

On the recommendation of the faculty/student/staff Ad Hoc Committee on the 1914 Library, the College is making two significant changes to how course books are paid for. One affects all students, the other all financial aid students. Both changes go into effect for the spring 2010 semester.

When purchasing books at Water Street Books, all students will now be able to swipe their Williams ID and have the cost go directly to their term bill (student account). This convenience applies only to books required for the courses that you’re registered in at the time of purchase. If you change courses, you can return the books for the course you’ve dropped and purchase the ones for the course you’ve added. Those transactions would also show up on your term bill. If you’re not a financial aid student, who will use the system described below, you can also pay for these purchases by check or with a credit or debit card.
The more significant change applies to all financial aid students. I’m very happy to report that the Committee has found a way for all financial aid students to acquire all your books with no out-of-pocket expense. You’ll swipe your ID card at Water Street Books, the purchase will go on your term bill, and the cost of that purchase will be paid for by the Financial Aid Office as a grant. Beginning then, the Financial Aid Office will also cover the cost of your course reading packets.

This system, which we understand may be unique among colleges, both eliminates the negative educational effects of the current system and is fairer. Let me explain how.

The 1914 Library has served financial aid students and the College as a whole well for many decades but its system of book loaning has unintended consequences. The financial aid grants that the College sets each semester include for each student $400 to cover the cost of books. You can purchase those from a variety of sources or you can borrow many of them from the 1914 Library. But in many circumstances you’ll be better off educationally owning the books: you can write in them and you can keep them after the semester for reference in future course work or when preparing for the GREs or professional school entrance exams. Some you’ll want to keep for life. The Committee also had learned that some students have let the cost of books influence their choice of courses. That will no longer be necessary. At the end of the semester you can decide to sell some or all of your books, either to Water Street Books or elsewhere. And there will no longer be any reason to camp out beside the 1914 Library the morning it opens.

In addition to the educational benefits, the new system will be fairer since currently each semester each financial aid student gets $400 to cover books. That’s an average arrived at by the College based on student surveys. But, of course, depending on the courses you take, some students spend more and some spend less. This system eliminates those inequities.

We’ll send more information about the new system closer to when it goes into effect.

We should thank the Committee for its thorough and creative attention to this important matter. Its members are listed below. We also need to thank many people at the Office of Information Technology, the Provost’s Office, the Financial Aid Office, the Controller’s Office, the Bursar’s Office, and Water Street Books who have had to work hard on creating a workable system. Of course we also thank generous alumni donors, including the Class of 1848, who helped make this possible through their support of the 1914 Library.

This move is cost-neutral to Williams. We have been able to implement it because our staff worked so cooperatively and well to resolve the many conceptual and technical details involved. Thanks again to them all.

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51 Responses to “New System for Book Purchasing”

Another'12 Parent says:

This is interesting, but not entirely clear. Currently, the school’s cost of attendance includes $800 in estimated book costs. The “financial aid student’s” (quaint, isn’t it, how Williams insists on calling students who receive financial aid, “financial aid students,” as if they are belong to a different species than the “regular” students?)grant is based partly on this cost. The student is able to procure some of his/her books from the 1914 Library, but generally has to buy some books. So, the current system is beneficial to the student because not only does she get some books for free, but her financial aid package assumes she’s paying for all of them.

If the system changes so the college pays for all the books, I assume the school’s grant will be reduced by $800 per year. Otherwise, the new practice couldn’t be “cost neutral.” but of course this means that most kids on FA will get less support, because currently they get both the $800 AND some free books.

It looks like it may be a backhanded way to wring a few bucks from the “poor” kids.

How does anyone know whether or not this change will be “cost-neutral?”

1) Even if it isn’t, it may still be a good idea.

2) Let’s just focus on financial aid students. This semester, the College budgeted $400 for each of them. Call that $400,000. Now, did $400,000 really leave the bank account of Williams in September? I am not sure. The students on full rides did get a check (?). (But isn’t that a very small percentage of the student body?) But even students who are expected to pay as little as $1,000, did not get money from Williams for their books. They were just charged $1,000 instead of $1,400 because the College assumed that they needed the $400 for books.

But, next semester, things change. Put students in two different groups.

a) Those who got checks from Williams this time. Those students will just get checks that are $400 lower, but they get to buy books. How can the College possibly know that they will spend, on average, $400 at Water Street? (I am happy to believe that smart Ephs like Finan and Winters can come up with all sorts of spreadsheets that estimate such an outcome, but I have real doubts about the accuracy of those forecasts. More below.)

b) Those students who send checks to Williams, every amount from $1,000 to $45,000. Those checks will rise by $400.

3) Let’s consider some reasons why the 1,000 students might spend much more than $400 per student now that books are free.

a) Why not buy all the recommended books as well as the required ones? They are free!

b) Why not buy new books rather than used books? They are free!

c) Why wouldn’t professors significantly increase the number/price of both required and recommended books? Right now, I (and other Williams teachers) try to take care in selecting books. We don’t won’t to screw students, especially students on financial aid. (Although we recognize that the College is supposed to provide enough aid to cover textbooks, we recognize that the aid may not be enough and, more important, that any leftover money can be used by students for whatever they want.) Now, books are free to half the students. And the other half of students almost all come from extremely rich families, at least relative to Williams professors. No need to worry about their book expenses!

4) To be clear, I have no opinion yet as to whether this is a good idea. I just have serious doubts about its cost-neutrality.

I would not be surprised if the 1,000 students on financial aid spent much more than $400 on books next semester. Anyone want to bet?

This move is of tremendous immediate value to all students for ease of acquisition, elimination of any course selection hesitation based on economics, and to the Water Street Bookstore as a local economic entity v on-line alternatives.

And the long-term value and satisfaction of building a personal library will be with students for a life-time!

Indeed, the bookstore may be a local business that, except for the rustle of turning pages, does not add to the noise level discussions being virtually decibelled on other posts even as we ever-so-softly speak.

1. Really? Books are free now for financial aid students? How could that possibly be cost neutral? Buying books from Water St. books is hardly likely to cost less than $200 per semester per student. I applaud the apparent generosity towards financial aid students at a time when budgets are squeezed and costs are being cut, but I doubt that this is going to be cost-neutral. Never mind. I was working with the old figure of $200 per semester per student, which is what we got, and which was not usually enough to cover the cost of books. $400 per semester per student may in fact be just enough, and may even be more than many students in div I or II need.

David does a good job above working out some of the implications on student incentives.

2. Is the 1914 library going to be closed? There doesn’t seem to be any reason to keep it open if buying books is free.

3. This is going to be a huge benefit for Water St. Books. Is the college going to be doing any systematic, regular analyses of the cost of books obtained from Water St. Books? Presumably, as the college will be paying for financial aid students’ books, there will be some wholesale discount negotiated. But I remember many cases where buying from Water St. Books was considerably more expensive than almost any other alternative. How do we ensure this isn’t an unwarranted subsidy to Water St. Books?

All of the students here on financial aid are really excited by this news… owning a book has its advantages over borrowing a book, as I’ve painfully realized this semester. The financial aid officers explained that in the long run, this plan is not as much more expensive than the current system now. (I don’t really remember the details on everything… )

ebaek and or Will: Would you mind putting out some numbers? About how much did you spend on books this semester? How much would you have spent if this plan had been in place (i.e., if it were free to you to get all required (and recommended?) books?

another note: for those texts a student doesn’t want, the second-hand sellers market is open. So those financial aid students may make some pocket change selling their books after the semester. always a nice thing.

didn’t the letter say only “required” books would be covered? I also doubt professors spend too much time thinking about how to game the system…I know I never spent near $400 and I preferred new over old books every time. I was not a science student and therefore avoided the expensive textbooks required in those courses. then again, maybe books are significantly more expensive now by a factor of almost 2? I doubt that.

Rory: You’re right. It does specify “required.” But, if I am a professor and I want all my financial aid students to have some free (excellent!) books, all I need to do is to move them from “recommended” to “required.” Yet I agree that this is unlikely to happen much . . .

David: I agree, but I’d also worry about those non-FA students (like me) who shouldered some/all of the cost of books themselves in doing so if i were a prof. I also wouldn’t be surprised to know that williams would keep an eye on out-of-whack costs. if every other sociology class charges about $200 and mine comes in at $450, that could raise some eyebrows and would be easy to rectify within a semester of the gaming.

Way back 1997-2001, I easily spent $400 some semesters on books, and I usually got every used book I possibly could and borrowed some from the 1914 and/or used my voucher. This is a great idea. Do you really think profs and/or students are going to sit around and game the system? Why do you always assume people are going to try to find an angle to take advantage? I guess I just have higher opinions of my fellow Ephs.

I would have loved this, because I had to spend a huge portion of my work study & summer money on books.

At first glance this really looks as if the College is subsidizing Water Street Books.

As for the cost of books—

I believe it’s cheaper to buy via Abebooks, Amazon, etc. It can also be cheaper if you have access to places like Strand books in Manhattan. I’ve bought books for academic courses for a number of years.

In speaking to a manager at Water Street, to the faculty’s credit, often earlier editions, which cost practically nothing, are OK. This was the reason I was given why Water Street would not provide me with any ISBN. (as an aside, there’s a “trick” to figure it out if there’s an on-line image of the book) I question whether this cost-saving method would continue. And, it’s unclear to me whether Water St actually stocked old editions. I assume they might be part of the 1914 Library.

Also, to the faculty’s credit, based on a limited sample, they seem to try to find the least expensive editions. Say, Signet’s Shakespeare, as opposed to some other publisher.

The most expensive texts are probably for the sciences. The cheapest editions seem to be what I would call “international knock-offs,” which “cannot” be sold in the US, although they are.

The other cost-saving method, which my son seems to use, is to find the material on-line. Using Shakepeare, again as an example, if he were to forget to take one of the copies from home, he could just go on-line to read it.

@JG: I’m not concerned about students intentionally gaming the system, but economic incentives work regardless of what you think of your fellow Ephs. If the college is paying for it, students have no incentive to go for used books instead of shiny new ones. Professors who assign their own textbook have no incentive to let students use “Used” copies of older editions – they can just demand that every student buy a new textbook every year if need be… all of this is nice for Water St. books, book publishers, and profs who assign their own books and release new editions frequently.

I’m all for aid, I was a finaid student myself and would have loved this program, but we should be careful not to turn aid to students into an unwarranted subsidy to outside companies. It would be better if the college operated its own not-for-profit bookstore.

I’m guessing this is going to be a $1-$2 million expense in the first year and will go up from there. I sincerely hope the college exercises its negotiating power as a wholesale buyer to bring the price of books at Water St. Books down. At least if they do that, this program will indirectly benefit all those students who didn’t qualify for financial aid but for whom purchasing books is still a burdensome expense.

I believe this semester my son spent less than $400 for books. (He still will have to pay for any reading packages that appear on his term bill.) Granted, he told me that he was buying used or international copies, & possibly getting old editions. At least a couple of these books would be exorbitant new. I’m fairly certain the used copies would be in at least very good condition.

This is certainly an interesting system that has a lot of potential to make textbook buying a non-issue for most of the campus.

For us at SpringStreetBooks, this obviously eliminates pretty much or entire market as the 50% on financial aid get them free and the parents of students not on financial aid probably won’t bat an eye at a 2% increase in their term bill.
However, springstreetbooks was never intended as a money making enterprise, simply to save students money. This new system does a much better job at that =)

On the one hand, I am glad for the FA students. And, most probably, as a full-boat payer, it means little difference for my family. (Although, the convenience of it all might be undone by the unraveling of charges…we shall see…)

But all that aside, I am a little uncomfortable with the overall arrangement with Water Street. While I trust all the players, it does appear to be a system subject to…kinks.

As a parent, I’m not sure I like the ease with which the College adds charges to the term bills, including tickets to the ill-fated Senior First Chance party.

Our deal with our daughter was simple. We paid tution, room, board, and the $200-something a year activities fee. Once she bought her books with her own money, we reimbursed her — she bought Ebay used, Amazon used, college bookstore used. We paid for transportation home. In four years, we never had one red cent added to the term bill.

This system seems like a way to sell a lot of expensive Water Street books to parents because, once it’s on the term bill, what are ya gonna do? I thought it was a good thing that daughter felt like she was spending real money on books — a nice incentive to find the best deals.

I assume the college will reduce the individual FA grants by $800 to pay for this. That will encourage, if not force, FA kids to buy new books through this system – in order to maximize their assistance – and obviously benefit Water Street Books (more power to them). The student on FA will now get shiny new books he can keep. That’s good, but a little weird, considering that their are probably plenty of non-FA kids out there, struggling to pay $50+K per year, and buying used books as one strategy to do so.

Again, I think it’s perfectly plausible for this to be cost neutral, but the end result is that it will cost kids on FA a little bit more.

Water Street Books has a monopoly on the system anyway. The kids who went on half.com or whatever can still do that to save money. It’s up to a parent to set boundaries on what the kid can charge to the term bill, not the school. It took a lot of effort and time for financial aid kids – or those who wanted to save money – to get the book lists and go elsewhere to buy them. That is the biggest factor in WSB keeping it’s position – access too book lists and the convenience.

I’m sorry, but I don’t cry in this case for those who can afford to pay full boat. I know their parents worked hard to get to the point of being able to pay, and they should be proud of that and not get punished. But their situation is not changing at all, i.e. there is no punishment here.

But as a financial aid student I worked a mandatory student job and had to scrape together the cash for books that my parents literally COULD NOT help me pay for. This system will save a lot of time of waiting in line at 1914 for hours to beg for the crumbs of old books that aren’t yet falling apart…that you then can’t even write in or fully use. The 1914 was a great institution that saved money, but it also perpetuated a class system where 1/2 the students have to wait in line for hours for necessities of their education or to attempt the 5 used copies of a text at WSB and others waltz in and grab them. I know going to Williams was a privilege, but I don’t understand how helping those who don’t actually have the ability to pay is somehow a bad thing here.

Using $400 as a semester book budget, if a student can buy used books in at least very good condition for less, which is definitely possible, even with 1-2 technical texts, which are very expensive new, then getting rid of the book stipend for financial aid recipients & forcing them to buy from Water Street means less pocket money for other things, be it stationery, a movie at Images, etc.

Time spent getting books: As for waiting for books to arrive, when ordered on-line, this semester when my son ordered them a day or so before he left for Williams, they arrived by or a few days into the first week of classes. He found the books on-line very quickly.

I do think that students receiving financial aid should not have to pay for reading packets, & possibly studio fees. No one can really budget for them because they don’t appear until the end of term invoice. A credit (grant from fin aid) for them should appear on term bills.

One possible advantage to book charges on the term bills is those expenses might be tax deductible, as educational expenses. I haven’t checked IRS guidelines nor an accountant about this.

Perhaps I am not explaining my situation well and perhaps mine was unique, although I don’t think so. The imaginary budget the school uses doesn’t mean you get cash…at least in most cases. The estimated travel and books money were part of figuring out the family contribution. That was always more than we could actually afford so one of the ways my parents balanced it was by expecting me to find a way to cover all books and incidentals.

There was no such thing as “leftovers” when I was at Williams because meeting the EFC fully would mean selling the house or something like that.

The issue is how much the financial aid office budgets for things other than tuition, room & board, which are fixed. Other expenses vary. For example, an international student must be given a larger travel budget than a domestic student. If the fin aid office derived the family contribution on a travel budget of $1000, but the family managed to spend less for travel, then the family created a small cushion.

JG- I agree that for many families the family contribution derived from a financial aid formula is still a significant figure for that family. And, the only places one could theoretically spend less money (within the budget that fin aid derives) is for the non-fixed costs, like books & travel.

Correct. Not a little mom & pop operation. I am not sure that there is a financial model that supports a locally owned bookstore in Williamstown without a captive market.

The other model, that is also in widespread use, is a college owned and operated bookstore. The college uses the revenue from the sale of branded apparel and merchandise to (partially) offset the losses from the textbook operations. They can probably fiddle with the rent costs (or non-costs) to make such and operation appear nominally breakeven.

I’ve not seen any other examples of what Williams is doing with textbooks. It’s difficult to get a grasp on the implications for various cohorts of students. I am pretty sure that that, in this environment, “revenue neutral” means the College believes it can break even. Or, Follett told the College they would close Water Street books without a guaranteed revenue stream (a plausible scenario, IMO).

@Dick Swart: Harvard coop is owned by Barnes and Noble. In New York, NYU, New School, and probably others also depend on Barnes and Noble to stock their textbooks.

My guess is that average textbook prices are higher at Water St. Books than they would be at a big-city B&N which does a large volume of business. The large academic B&N on 18th St. stocks a lot of used books, and also has more local competition to deal with. The only competition for Water St. is online ordering, which is considerably less convenient for many students.

Re: on-line ordering. I believe that’s how one gets books through Water Street so they don’t over-stock.

I assume some they stock because there are small stacks of books in the back. However, I recall at least a few that my son would have had to order on their website to be picked up at the store.

I don’t know if my son is typical of “this generation of students,” who are very familiar with paypal, but he seems to prefer to order on-line, including books, which as I’ve noted before he finds in gently used condition & highly discounted.

@Parent ’12: One of my housemates was a manager in approx. ’95-96, as it tumbled back and forth between direct ASUC ownership and ownership by ——-; sure, it provided textbooks, wasn’t a general bookstore, wasn’t Cody’s (may it RIP), wasn’t Shakespeare’s; but, in any case, I got a reasonable look at how ASUC worked under a corporation, vs. WSB (which was undertakeover at the same time) — no further comment for the moment.

UO (that would be Oregon) has an independent store that is owned by the ASUO – The Duck Store. It has been around for almost 100 years. They have a Board made up of current students, faculty, and classified personnel of the University. As part of the student government elections, students can run for a spot on the Board. From my experience, it runs incredibly well.

@hwc: I thought you were commenting in general, not specific to Williamstown. You’re absolutely right Westwood, actually any part of the West Side of LA, is not Williamstown.

Does anyone know what Amherst does. I was in the bookstore that stocked textbooks. It might have had an unimaginative name like Amherst Books. All I recall, is that the textbooks were in the basement & there seemed to be more stock than Water Street.

@Parent ’12: Moe’s is still there– though I recall it almost closed, as well. As a writer, you can still call Shakespeare’s in Paris, and ask for a cot for the night– or apply for much longer, if you’re working on a project. Public democracy and self-government at the great public universities… well I have an email, asking me to act to preserve the “grandeur” and “vision” “of Berkeley…”
… at Heidelberg, in most programs, you pay filing fee of just under 1000 Euro’s to pursue a doctorate.
That’s all.

There was a time when I thought, I surely must be lying, when I told people it took 2 hours to get from our house in San Francisco, to Berkeley– less than 10 miles away.
Then I flew back, and, two hours into the commute, not yet at the Bay Bridge– not yet at the Bay Bridge, on the San Francisco side–
I just had to check the above. Surely I’m deceiving myself. Heidelberg– listed 57th of the world’s universities– Berlin– Amsterdam– Tokyo– Sydney– all in the top ten–
I’ve talked to the administrators and politicians, but I still can’t quite grasp the political economies. Fifty thousand US dollars for a year at Berkeley; ten thousand, reasonably, at Heidelberg or Amsterdam– and you’ll live better. UNAM?

“It’s the end of an era.” 02:12 here. As I look across the room, people are still reading, mostly, those who are not chatting. “Cliques:” here: 200,000 souls live in space less than twice the area of the Williams campus, and the cliques, the divisions, are — the same! — enforced by dialect, by the little areas of villages that each group came from– last night I talked with a friend, who was frustrated by how each group is “boxed in”– the table behind me, the table to the right of me– it’s the same “language,” but–

three years ago, all of this perplexed me– I couldn’t understand, but it all sounded so familiar, so close–

a third of it is English, or old English. It is closer to English, than common German. The words are exactly the same– the letters, the sounds, — the “u”, in “soup,” an “e”– and–

the pronunciation varies. Oftimes– I catch someone, using a sound my ear can barely catch, much less my brain remember and my palate repear– an alien sound, an old sound– even a simple word, such as “well,” is pronounced so many different ways.

I am confounded and confused. Three years ago, this language seemed so alien– an odd and distant dialectical series of languages– in fact, it is is so simple, so close to my native language. It’s not a different language at all– it’s just a dialect, pronounced differently, with some minor grammatical differences, and a pidgin of French and the Indo-Europeans mixed in. It’s obvious; it’s simple; how can I not have understood, this?

Why is it so hard to get my tongue to say anything, in this?

But the tragedy– I can listen to the table behind me, and to the right of me– the words are the same, or almost the same. There seem to be few differences in grammar, in expression– this series of languages is in fact far closer to English, than French or German.

But can the two tables, one behind me, one to the right– understand each other?

So, um, so, is the College forcing students to pay retail here– handing Follett at least a quarter(*)-million dollar a year monopoly– or has it negotiated a price reduction?

In which latter case– what’s going on here?

Finally: the primary so-called “cost-reduction” here would seem to be in eliminating the 1914 librarian. One could have done that, regardless. The Deep Springs library (and bookstore) were run by a student (he’s also the postmaster and…).

The DS bookstore typically pays about 80% of retail, btw.– students pay whatever the bookstore does.